How people who have a lot can benefit from being minimalists
Most of the time, we think minimalism is only for people who are struggling to make ends meet. After all, people who are rich can afford to just keep on buying things, even if they are excessive. Personally, I was forced to practice minimalism as my family had to move to a smaller two-bedroom condo because we needed to renovate our bigger three-bedroom residence.
Although we thought we only had to live simply for a short while, the renovation that was supposed to last for a few months lasted for a year.
Now that we are back in our old residence, I still fondly recall our minimalist lifestyle. In fact, I plan to maintain some of the habits that we picked up when we were living at a smaller place given their numerous benefits.
One of the major benefits of being a minimalist is the significant savings. For example, our electricity bill was cut by half because we had to make do with only one refrigerator. Our air-conditioning units were also smaller, hence our lower electricity consumption.
Everyone loves a bargain, including wealthy people who can easily afford to pay more for everything. The savings that we can enjoy by practicing a minimalist lifestyle is something that everyone can appreciate.
Another benefit to being a minimalist is the realization that we don’t need so many things to be happy. Because we moved to a smaller place, we only brought a few clothes, shoes and bags. We also had to limit the number of bowls, plates, silverware and kitchen appliances that we brought. Since we didn’t have a lot of space, we also shopped less and only bought things out of necessity. Admittedly, I had to wear the same clothes and accessories repeatedly and most of my tableware didn’t match. However, that didn’t make me feel deprived or less valuable as a person. And although I painstakingly packed the things in my old house so I could easily retrieve them in case I needed them, I never did for one whole year, which meant that I owned so many things that I didn’t really need.
Practicing minimalism also helped me to let go. Sometimes, I kept things because they were expensive, and I thought it would be wasteful to give them away. Other times, I kept things just because I thought I would need them, and it would be wasteful to have to buy them again. However, even expensive things get old. Sometimes they would break without being used.
I also realized that I seldom use the things that I kept because I would forget that I owned them. Or maybe I intentionally forgot them because I needed an excuse to buy newer and trendier things that were now available.
By letting go of things I really don’t need, I also decluttered my surroundings. It also allowed me to help others, because the things that I would otherwise keep in storage benefited people who really needed them.
Finally, minimalism helped me teach my daughters about personal finance. Because I didn’t buy a lot of things even though they were on sale, my daughters also became more intentional in their shopping.
During the sale this July, my daughters returned a lot of the items that they bought online even though they looked good on them. They said that although they were pretty, they probably would not wear them a lot. One of my daughters also said that she didn’t want to have too many things in her room because the clutter would prevent her from appreciating her newly renovated room.
From my experience, modeling is the best way we can teach our children about anything. Although we all want our children to be frugal, regardless of our financial status, we are not setting a good example when we personally buy things that we don’t need and just toss aside when we get home.
We are also not teaching frugality when we buy things for our children just because they are nice and they did not ask for them. This might be the reason why a lot of our children act like they are entitled and get angry when they don’t get what they want.
My experience with minimalism reminded me of the wisdom of this Bible passage: “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6) This is something that I think we should remind ourselves every time we are tempted to buy things that we don’t really need. Hopefully, this will make us think twice about our purchases. INQ
